By Umar Farooq</p> <p>WASHINGTON (AA) – Afghanistan's permanent representative to the UN was elected Thursday to serve as vice president of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP).</p> <p>Adela Raz was unanimously selected for the position during a meeting of the CEIRPP Thursday morning.</p> <p>"Congratulations to H.E. @AdelaRaz unanimously elected as Vice President of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People," the UN committee said on Twitter.</p> <p>The UN established the CEIRPP in 1975 with the purpose of creating a program to enable Palestinian people to exercise their rights to self-determination and to attempt to return to their homes and property from which they had been displaced.</p> <p>"Approximately two million Palestinians remain mired in increasing poverty and unemployment, with limited access to adequate health, education, water and electricity," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in remarks to the committee last month.</p> <p>"Afghanistan is ready to continue its effective role in the committee, and look forward to a productive year ahead of us," the Afghanistan mission to the UN posted on Twitter.</p> <p>Raz was selected as Afghanistan's first female permanent representative to the UN in December 2018.
